Muslim Cool: Su'ad Abdul Khabeer with Zain Alam and Muna Mire

Come for a special night investigating how young Muslim Americans resist empire through hip hop and other musical subcultures. Su'ad Abdul Khabeer calls it “Muslim Cool”—her term for how young Muslims in the United States fight state power by engaging with Black identity, particularly through fashion and music. In a time when Black Muslims face both Islamophobia and anti-blackness, her work represents a vital intervention. Zain Alam, the lead singer of the band Humeysha, loops samples of North Indian soundscapes with lyrics that shift between English, Hindi and Urdu to imagine a new Muslim sonic culture, inspired equally by My Bloody Valentine and J Dilla. They’ll speak with the Canadian-Somali writer Muna Mire, a contributor to The New Inquiry, Vice, and The New York Times Magazine.

Zain Alam is an artist whose work explores South Asian artistic traditions, transnational movements in the Islamic world, and diasporic identity in the U.S. He was recently BHQFU Fellow at ArtCenter/South Florida and is currently a graduate student in Islamic studies at Harvard University, and the frontman of the NYC-based recording project Humeysha.

Muna Mire’s work can be found at the New York Times Magazine, Teen Vogue, The New Republic, Mask Magazine, The Nation, and VICE. She works at The Rundown with Robin Thede, a new late night comedy show on BET. Read their Twitter @Muna_Mire and their classic piece, “Towards a Black Muslim Ontology of Resistance” in The New Inquiry.